One degree of separation

"...like two shores separated by an ocean,

and the ocean is our ego...."

until next time, love beaches :D

Nude Ellie

That was the status message on my Google Talk for a couple of days last week... A lot of guys who dont bother saying a hi when i have a normal green button insisted on saying one when i had this custom message with a red button... It happened to elicit a lot of responses ranging from numbers associated with Ellie - her vital stats and her mobile number to social questions - whether i could do a quick introduction.

Now, it was the first time in 14 years that i was seeing this subject of extreme curiosity and i must say i was pleasantly surprised. Cleaner, calmer and most definitely hot, changed my perspective completely. And thanks to this reacquainting, i also got to meet two people who i have known only virtually. While i spent only a few minutes with N, since we were both on working time, i had dinner at J's place. While i exhibited my usual atrocious sense of humour and other anti social skills, she really couldnt kick me out, since she had a plastered foot.

But, i digress, this is about nude ellie, only Shobha cracked it, and the most heartfelt response i got was one i got on facebook was this

(reacting to the status - Manu is exploring Nude Ellie)

He: I want to explore nude ellie too.

Me: All major carriers have flights from Mum-bai to Nude Ellie

He: Manu, you are terrible

until next time, have you met Erica ? ;)

Reality 55

The birthday boy gave us a piece of his cake. He really wanted to give it to Aishu only, but we were with her, so... As we wished him, Aishu shyly ran away to her mother who was sitting at the next table, the birthday boy walked back to his friends. We ate the cake.

until next time, cake khane ke liye......

To be Shore..

And "Alan Shore fans" makes it to my orkut communities because of this...
Alan Shore: Well you need to hear it! ......... to abuse a talented, selfless employee only because his social skills lack the polish! To allow him to work tirelessly under the delusion that he could make partner! A delusion you carefully nurtured so as to make piles of money off of him in the short term. That’s a betrayal, Shirley. Not just of Jerry, but of you! And your character! Which up till now I haveconsidered undeniably decent.

Shirley Schmidt: Are you finished?

Alan Shore: No. Jerry Espenson, no doubt, will go off quietly into the night as the meek often do. But somebody around here has to get angry about it. Otherwise you’ll just go off and blithely do it again.

Shirley Schmidt: We have not yet made a decision concerning Jerry Espenson, when we do I will call you first to tell you, “It is none of your concern!”

Alan Shore: There’s a saying Shirley, perhaps you’ve heard it. ‘All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to say, “It’s a business.”

While that might have been boring to the non-followers, what interested me was that it addresses an issue that i have found constantly encountered in professional life - social skills, or the lack of it. I've been ambivalent about this myself, but it irks me when people with lesser skills tend to be able to push their case only because they are aggressive, especially in situations where the hard skills are more important than the soft ones..

And sometimes i see this aggression being used in a social context when the people who prefer to exist in the background are subject to the sort of bullying that usually is associated with school life... And each time i see it happen, i thank god for a reasonably sharp humour sense and a dichotomy of personality :)

until next time, the meek shall inherit the earth...

Social Currency

Was chatting with a friend last week on the complexity of human relationships. Of course, she is of the view that it is not so complex after all, and i tend to complicate it with my penchant for over analysis :D I admit to the anlaysis bit, but in this case, am not convinced about it being undue. Double the negative, double the fun.

Coincidentally, also saw a movie last weekend, which brought out my stance almost perfectly, almost, because the character of the protagonist does a U-turn midway. Anyways, the crux of the matter is that i believe that every relationship, even, rather especially the close ones are tinged with a selfish motive, actually, not tinged, more a strong undercurrent. There are precious few exceptions.

It depends on the individual's choice whether this gets acknowledged or not, but i strongly feel that there is always currency involved, and it is not always unconditional love or any such seemingly pure emotion... the acknowledgement does not happen perhaps because we mould ourselves to fit into a society and its forms of expression...The undercurrent may be that of emotional security, convenience or anything else - based on the situation, but its most definitely there. And for every help/favor/token of affection etc there isa meter ticking, some of us keep it in mind, and some of us keep it deep in the recesses of our mind

until next time, mind it :)

Faced Out

I asked a question on facebook recently 'Is facebook just a phase', like cerelac, toy cars, comics etc and more importantly, as we become older, virtual orkut and real relationships. Its perhaps part of the overall picture of decreasing attention spans, the need for instant gratification and the gradual extinction therefore, of patience.

Patience to seek and find answers, patience to sit through the 5 minute ad break, patience to discover new things, patience to wait in the atm queue, patience to understand people, patience to wait till the site loads, patience to work on relationships and so on...Since that's being lost, is virtual networking an easy escape route, where virtuality allows us to bypass the difficulties of working on relationships, where entry and exit strategies are much easier, where scraps can be started and ended with scraps, and the writings on the wall are easy to do and undo, where it might be easier to live with masks?

Or is it the opposite, moving on to a plane where masks become redundant? Is that why we are so hooked on, is that what we mean by convenience? Is it wrong, hell no, i am just wondering :)

until next time, face off

Fictionary

The uneasy feeling you get when your wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend peers at a person of your gender in an appreciative manner - Peer Pressure

until next time, peerless? ;)

Ram Gopal Varma ki ma!@#$%^

Ram Gopal Varma's gags should be stopped, period!! His next movie should be "How to make a big B movie with Big B". Coz thats what he has done, taken 3 national award winning actors and made the biggest B-grade movie ever. (with due apologies to B grade movie makers, dont sue me)

With Mohanlal, Big B, Ajay Devgan, Sushmita Sen, guess who gets maximum screen time - Nisha Kothari as ghunghroo, basanti's new age avtaar!! I wouldnt have minded much if she stuck to her regular attire, but no, RGV made the cardinal mistake of trying to make her act. Since basanti's horse cart was replaced by an auto, she had to do both Basanti's and Dhanno's roles, and as far as dubbing goes, she succeeded, coz she sounded like a child that they might have had while horsing around!!!

And poor poor Mohanlal, who in my view is the finest actor around, bar none. i wonder how RGV convinced him to wear a beard that must have come out of Anil Kapoor's waxed remains or something, I am sure RGV didnt pay for it. That, or somewhere, some bear is missing its posterior fur!!

And Chakravarty (Satya), Rajpal Yadav and VJ Gaurav, all in roles which competed with Nisha Kothari's regular costumes and acting talent in terms of miniscule-ness. To cut a long story short, the only entity that deserves Aag is RGV's factory, they really should set fire to that place.

Until next time, aaaarghhh

Source: Unknown

PS: This post is issued in public interest (the fact that this blog has attempted a review is proof of that)